1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an analysis device analyzing a sample by sucking a reagent from a reagent container and a reagent container employed for the analysis device.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, analyzers such as a biochemical analyzer, a hemocytometer and a urine particle analyzer, for example, are known as analyzers analyzing samples such as blood and urine.
In the biochemical analyzer, the number of types of reagents employed for analyzing a sample is remarkably large. If set positions for the reagents are decided for the respective types of the reagents in this case, it becomes necessary for the user to set the reagents after confirming the correspondence between the types of the reagents and the set positions one by one, and hence a set operation for the reagents is complicated.
Therefore, there is such a biochemical analyzer that the user can arbitrarily set any reagent on a vacant position of a reagent box, as a biochemical analyzer described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-321283, for example. The biochemical analyzer described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2000-321283 is configured to rotate a reagent box thereby arranging a reagent container of a prescribed type, which has been set by the user on an arbitrary position, on a dispensation position where a suction pipe is capable of dispensing the reagent so that the suction pipe can dispense the reagent from the reagent container of the prescribed type.
In a particle analyzer such as a hemocytometer or a urine particle analyzer, on the other hand, the number of measurement items is not so large as that of the biochemical analyzer, while the number of types of used reagents is also small. While a stain solution for specifically staining particles (cells) of a specific type is employed as a reagent, there is an apprehension that a carryover is caused when dispensation is performed by employing a common suction pipe in a case where there are a plurality of types of such stain solutions. Therefore, set positions for reagent containers are predetermined in response to the types of reagents, and each reagent container is configured to be fluidly connected with a prescribed portion of the analyzer. As a reagent container storing a reagent used in such an analyzer, there is a flat baggy reagent container as described in Pamphlet of International Patent Laying-Open No. 2009/104598, for example. Such a reagent container is fluidly connected with the prescribed portion of the analyzer by a flexible tube, for example, and employed.
When the user tries to set a reagent container such as that described in the aforementioned Pamphlet of International Patent Laying-Open No. 2009/104598 on an analyzer, however, it becomes necessary to detach a lid of the baggy reagent container and to insert a tube connected to the analyzer into the reagent container, and it has been accompanied by a complicated manual operation.